Yesterday I wrote about a campaign called #FBRape, started by Women, Action & The Media (WAM!) and The Everyday Sexism Project. Facebook currently allows pages and groups that support rape, domestic violence and other hate groups. Their mission was to get companies to remove their ads from Facebook until Facebook agreed to take down such pages and revise their terms and conditions.

Well, it worked! Facebook made a public statement yesterday evening:

“In light of this recent attention, we want to take this opportunity to explain our philosophy and policies regarding controversial or harmful content, including hate speech, and to explain some of the steps we are taking to reduce the proliferation of content that could create an unsafe environment for users.

As a result, we believe we are able to remove the vast majority of content that violates our standards, even as we scale those systems to cover our more than 1 billion users, and even as we seek to protect users from those who seek to circumvent our guidelines by reposting content that has been taken down time and time again.”

The statement goes on to explain that Facebook will update their guidelines when it comes to permitted content as well as the guidelines their team uses to evaluate reported content. They will also update the training that their teams go through so they can better recognize inappropriate content. In addition, they will do more to make those who post such content accountable for their actions.

Essentially, Facebook will “refine its approach to hate speech,” and they invited WAM!, The Everyday Sexism Project and other supporters to work with them and create a better environment. Facebook also stated, “We’ll also continue to expand our outreach to responsible groups and experts who can help and support us in our efforts to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”

Honestly, it’s upsetting that it had to take a week-long campaign, over 60,000 tweets, and thousands of emails and petition signatures in order for Facebook to even recognize that there was an issue. But it goes to show the power of social media and how if a community makes enough noise, a change can be made.

I wish I could say that I think we’ll never see horrible groups and photos on Facebook again, but I think this is a start. Facebook recognized an issue that really hurt their users, and they want to fix it. It’s a great step in the right direction!

How do you feel about how Facebook handled the situation? Do you think their policies will be better from now on? Tell us in the comments!
 

In other creepy social media news, Snapchat photos are getting leaked

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